Category Archives: america

About my travels in America

Are you going to San Francisco (actually we spent a couple of days there and then went to Vegas)

Thursday 17th June, 2010

I feel I need to address some of the issues Helen has so politely brought up in her version of events.

1. I happened to notice the wanking tramp first, felt that we were interrupting his obviously practiced routine so went to buy tickets for bus journey to Vegas.

2. The cockroach thing was hilarious and I nearly wet myself watching Helen dancing around the cockroaches in the middle of the street.

3. I actually told Helen that I would abandon here in Washington if she decided to lay the stripper cards out on the kitchen table and select the best ones for the stripper wall in her journal but she has them stashed in a bag and I am sure she will bring them out in Boston when she knows we are all our final destination.

4. Mum, Dad please don’t worry about the murderer and to coke at the petrol station, it really wasn’t as dramatic as that and I am old enough and stupid enough to make it this far around the world.  I am not going to let a murderer stop me from getting back to the UK to pay off my debits.

5. Ruth said nothing of the sort about Chinese girls and doesn’t wish to piss off a large proportion of people.  I just made an observation that some of the Asian girls that I had shared rooms with had a very different view of quiet time to myself.

After having a maximum of 2 hours of sleep on the bus we arrived in San Francisco totally shattered.   We got on the bus to Union Square and walked up to the hostel.  The Adelaide hostel was really nice and has great meal deals and breakfast included, which we took advantage of.  On Friday we spent the day exploring San Francisco.  We caught the cable car over to Fisherman’s Wharf and walked around the bay area.  We both got caricatures pictures of ourselves by an art student and basked in the glorious sunshine before going for Clam Chowder and a boat trip to Alcatraz and under the Golden Gate Bridge.  We had a great trip around the bay and soaked up the sun before walking back along Fisherman’s Wharf and up to the crooked section of Lombard Street and arrived back at Westfield Centre at 7.30pm not believing where the day had gone.

Saturday involved another long bus journey (after meeting the wanking tramp) arriving in Las Vegas in the dark to appreciate the strip in its full glory.  Our hotel was nice, really great value and on the strip so a great location.  We explored the hotel and then went to bed. I had a great nights sleep significantly enhanced by the fact that I has a double bed to myself again for the next 3 nights and only Helen’s snoring to contend with in the bed next to me.

I woke up on my birthday and had phone calls from home, which is always nice but even better on your birthday.  We caught the bus down to the end of the strip and walked to the famous Las Vegas sign for photo opportunities. Throughout the day we walked back in the direction of the hotel stopping off at numerous hotels along the way including Luxor to see the pyramid, Excalibur, New York New York, The Bellagio for the fountains and the botanical gardens, Caesars Palace, The Venetian, The Mirage and Treasure Island for a birthday dinner at Kahunaville.  We had a great dinner with cocktails and birthday cake, then back to our hotel for more drinks, rides in the amusement park and losing at Roulette (last of the big spenders I bet $10).  All in all a great birthday.

The early starts are not funny anymore, 5am and I am in the shower getting ready for our trip to the Grand Canyon.  We took the bus to the Grand Canyon stopping at the Hoover dam along the way.  On arrival at Mathers Point we walked along the South rim to the Yavapii Visitors Centre taking loads of photographs along the way and climbing over the rocks to get a better vantage point.  At Yavapii we watched three Elks walking across the car park and took loads of photo’s of them too.   Then on to Bright Angel Lodge for Helen to do some souvenir shopping and more photographs.  We had a very uneventful journey back to the hotel and neither of us could really believe how amazing the Grand Canyon is.  It is definitely one of the top natural wonders of the world.  It was so beautiful and I was amazed.

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Seattle, Portland (again) and San Francisco

Friday 11th June, 2010

Another few days have gone since updating the blog so here is what has been happening. As most of you know from my facebook, I successfully retrieved Helen from the SeaTac airport on Saturday night.  Tired and full of cold I think she was pleased to have reached her first destination.  She went to bed pretty quickly in no mood to discuss future plans but I figured I might get a better reception the following morning.

Sunday and we went on the bus to the Convention Centre to see about the Discovery passes at the Greyhound depot.  We both purchased a 15 day pass and this would take us up to 2 days before our departure back to London and get us safely to Boston, with a bit of look.  Monday we would depart to Portland on the way to San Francisco and Las Vegas.

Back in Seattle we walked to the Space Needle and went on the 360 degree walk around the top. The day started off a damp but soon brightened up and the cloud lifted to reveal the mountain Rainier on the Seattle skyline.  After the obligatory walk around the gift shop we walked to Pike Place market with a fair bit of ‘are we nearly there yet’ on Helen’s part.  After a good look round and some late lunch we went looking round the shops and to a free demonstration of the new cirque de sol show that is in town.   Then back to the hostel with a selection of food from the international district food court and settled in for movie night.

Monday with are discovery passes in hand we went to the greyhound depot again and got the bus to Portland, Oregon and actually arrived 10 minutes early, which is completely unheard of.  A bit more moaning from Helen to get to the hostel we dropped off our bags and headed straight for the Blue Moon brewpub up the road.  A few pints down and conversation turned to trying to organise a few things for the days to come and working out what we were going to do and where.  Tuesday morning we got up a little later, trying to avoid the lovely old lady from Bristol who spent hours talking at us last night. We walked straight to Powell’s books where I traded in my old book for credit towards two new ones.  We spent a long time in there trawling through bookcase after bookcase of romantic fiction (unfortunately we are both addicted to the happy ever after) and had coffee. From here we decided to brave the shops and see if we could stick to the no spending rule.  I managed to only buy a t shirt so I was very pleased with myself.

We walked a long the water front and back to stand in the queue for the Voodoo Doughnuts. Helen purchased a selection to take video footage of and I got one called Captain my captain with multicoloured cereal on top, it did taste better than it sounded.  Both pretty tired after a full day we had an early night and I settled down to one of my new books. I keep smiling at how comfortable I feel with everything and how simple things seem, that is until I start to thing about money, but I am happily in denial for at least 2 more weeks.

Portland’s café culture suites me down to the ground and we walked up to 23rd St with a lot of little boutique style shops interspersed with coffee shops and tea houses on a tree lined streets.  We set up camp in a lovely little tea house with Helen discovering the merits of bubble tea and me getting the chance to read out of date UK magazines and discover that 6 months doesn’t change things at all in the celebrity media world.  Later we started the bus journey to San Francisco travelling through the night and arriving in Sacramento for breakfast and San Francisco around lunchtime.  We were both completely shattered. Neither of us got much sleep and I looked like shit. The first thing I did in the hostel was have a shower to wake up and so that I didn’t scare the other guests.  The hostel seems nice, it really big and has a cosy sitting area and free breakfast to start the day right.

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After Banff

Monday 7th June, 2010

My blog entries will continue as normal but Helen will odviously be using it to so you will have two sides of the story and I am sure you will know which is which.

So after spending a couple of days in Banff seeing the wonderful landscape and the snow each morning and managing to upload loads of backdated photo’s onto the blog I walked back to the bus station and took thebus to Calgary.  The hostel was nice but my first walk around the city left the feeling a bit empty.  It was a sunday but there wasn’t may people around and everyone that I saw looked like they were a chronic alcoholic or that they were totally dependant on crack or crystal meth.

I picked up some dinner and with positive thoughts that Calgary would have more appeal tomorrow I went back to the hostel and watched Nacho Libre with a guy from Australia and one from New Zealand.  I have learnt a lot about where different countries travel to, here is what I have found so far:

British: Europe, South East Asia, Australia and New Zealand

Americans: England, Australia, New Zealand (sometimes), Canada and America

Australians: England, Europe, America and Canada (if they haven’t had a drink driving conviction)

New Zealanders: Canada and America

French: America and Canada (although some of these could be french canadian but don’t converse with many people as they refuse to speak in English)

German and Irish: Everywhere!

Monday in Calgary was a little more promising.  I found the main street and visited  few shops and galleries. One thing that really stands out is that the whole city is like one big construction site.  I really didn’t expect this only a couple of months after the winter olypmics because nearly all the jump events were in Calgary and you would have thought this would be the time they where basking in the afterglow of there efforts pre olympics, but no.  Maybe it has just made them more determined to expand the city.

I went to the library, sent emails recieved multiple messages from Helen that flight was confirmed depite BA strike and threfore organised tickets back to Vancouver (if flight was cancelled with going to fly to Toronto from there).  Tuesday and a another long bus jpurney back to Vancouver in the rain and running to the hostel before checkin closed at 11pm.

I needed to plan how I was going to spend my last few days alone so I went to the bus station and asked what bus wwas leaving next.  The lady obviously didn’t get that I wasn’t bothered where I was  going to end up but gave me a list of place names and I said yes to Portland.  So there it was, I was crossing the border back into America and passing through Washington state to go the Portland, Oregon.  I was excited again, I had heard a lot of good things about Portland and it was a new place to explore.

Back on the greyhound and before I knew it we were pulling up at the border.  The guy was really tough and every question I answered seemed to dig me into a deeper hole.  The worse part being that I knew that I know that I had done nothing wrong but I felt I needed to confess something.  The bus driver must have read the confusion on my face and went on the explain that this guy wasn’t the worse one! After that I just felt like shouting not everyone wants to stay in you land of the free!

Summary of conversation:

‘Where are you from?’

‘The UK’

‘The UK, why are you coming to America?’

‘For a holiday’

‘What holiday?’

‘Sorry?’

‘What holiday?’

‘Oh sorry, a vacation’

‘Vacation. Are you travelling alone?’

‘I am meeting my friend in Seattle’

‘Who is this friend and how do you know them?’

‘A friend from England, I have known her since school’

‘Why isn’t she with you now?’

‘I have been travelling for a few months and she could only get 3 weeks of work’

‘What do you do in the UK?’

‘I am a nurse’

‘A nurse.  I am not saying that nurses don’t earn much, but how are you funding this trip?’

‘I have saved some, I worked a bit in Australia and the rest is going on credit cards’

‘Do you have a ticket to leave?’

‘Yes we fly out of Boston on the 24th of June’

‘June 24th. How are you getting to Boston?’

‘I don’t know yet’

‘Oh, Take your things to the scan over there’

‘Thanks’ (for the interrogation)

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Arriving in America

Monday 17th May, 2010

I got out of the hostel in Auckland on Saturday morning, went to the Library to check my emails and then caught the bus to the airport.  Not wanting to leave New Zealand left me feeling more than a little sad to be checking in my bag again America bound.  At 1pm I boarded the plane after going through double security checks (for America only) and had a 12 hour flight unable to sleep again.  Therefore my journey consisted off Brothers, Twilight: New Moon, Pam Ann: Live in London and my new favourite Australian film Bran Neu Dae. The Plane landed in LA at 6.30am and I went through Customs and Immigration with a very nice officer who was asking me all about England. He wanted to go but didn’t think he could face the flight.

Going into terminal 3 was a different story, the immigration people were just moody and I got stopped at the security gate and was told they ‘wanted to check my pants’.  Having lived in Newcastle for the past 9 years and watched enough American TV to know that they actually wanted to check my trousers but I was still a bit taken aback.  After doing all this I still had another 3 hours to wait but I had a book, my ipod and a Starbucks so it wasn’t long till boarding.  Another 2 1/2 hours and I had arrived in Seattle with sleep deprivation really kicking in.  It is weird to think that because of crossing the international date line I had arrived before I set off.

From the airport I got the light rail to Chinatown and walked to the hostel.  As soon as I dropped my bags in the room I went for a shower to wake myself up knowing that I had to stay awake to go to bed tonight and minimise the jet lag.  I did feel better after my shower and set off on my orientation walk.  I walked up 3rd Ave and past the library and the art gallery then stopped for coffee at Seattle’s Best Coffee Co. (I am trying to avoid Starbucks in its birthplace) where I got talking to a lady that told me it was the cheese festival this weekend at Pike Place Market and I asked her about the buses (free in the CBD) and a couple of the visitor attractions.  Someone on the plane mentioned a great seafood restaurant on one of the Piers so I am hoping to go there when Helen arrives (note the when not if).  I walked down to Pike Place market but it was already 5pm and people were packing up, I wandered round a bit knowing that I could have a better look on Sunday.  On the way back I found a great Thai takeaway so with my Prawn Pad Plik I went back to the hostel.

Finally giving in to sleep at 9.30pm I got up at 10am having slept 12 1/2hours and feeling like I had woken from hibernation.  I caught the bus to Waterlake Centre and wandered round the shops before heading down to the market.  Seattle is an easy city to navigate, with a better workout for legs than most.  The lady in the coffee chop yesterday said that she, like many locals, had found routes through the buildings in the lifts to get up the streets. I am amazed that Hong Kong has outdoor escalators but cities in America don’t.  I figured that I am more likely to get myself lost in the shops and definitely spend more money so I keep walking up the hills. It doesn’t have as many as Auckland.

Anyway down at the market and this place is crazy.  Loads of stalls with all different kinds of cheese but yo have to fight your way through to them.  This market is in every guide book and tourist leaflet for Seattle but also frequented by the locals for the fresh produce like seafood directly from the piers below.  There are flower stalls and loads of people walking around cradling bouquets like babies or with them high in the air away from bodies.  I ate at one of the seafood restaurants in the market over looking the piers, the aquarium and Elliott bay.  I picked out some salmon and vegetables for dinner and after satisfying my market fix I walked back up the hill to the library for my 30 minutes free internet time.

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